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The Spencer Gulf is the westernmost of two large inlets on the southern coast of Australia, in the state of South Australia, facing the Great Australian Bight. The Gulf is 322 km (200 mi) long and 129 km (80 mi) wide at its mouth. The western shore of the Gulf is the Eyre Peninsula, while the eastern side is the Yorke Peninsula, which separates it from the smaller Gulf St Vincent. Its entrance was defined by Matthew Flinders as a line from Cape Catastrophe on Eyre Peninsula to Cape Spencer on Yorke Peninsula.〔 〕 The largest towns on the gulf are Port Lincoln, Whyalla, Port Pirie, and Port Augusta. Smaller towns on the gulf include Tumby Bay, Port Neill, Arno Bay, Cowell, Port Germein, Port Broughton, Wallaroo, Port Hughes and Port Victoria. ==History== The gulf was named ''Spencer's Gulph'' by Flinders on 20 March 1802, after George John Spencer, the 2nd Earl Spencer, an ancestor of Diana, Princess of Wales.〔 The official name is now Spencer Gulf. The gulf was also named Golfe Bonaparte by Nicholas Baudin at roughly the same time as Flinders, but the name did not catch (others, like the Fleurieu Peninsula, did). The area was first explored on land by Edward John Eyre in 1839 and 1840-41. Settlement of the shores of the Gulf began in the late 1840s. Settlement of Port Lincoln occurred much earlier, due in part to its fertility and utility to foreign whaling vessels, who operated off the south and west coasts. Port Lincoln was considered as the site of a potential alternative capital city in the 1830s, prior to the selection of Adelaide. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Spencer Gulf」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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